Copyright Rules (UPDATED: Jan 12, 2018)

Talk and share anything related to Star Wars Battlefront 2. No maps or mod announcements here. Use Work in Progress forum.

Moderator: Moderators

Post Reply
MissingTexture
2nd Lieutenant
2nd Lieutenant
Posts: 380
Joined: Sat Jun 13, 2015 10:51 am
Projects :: SW Resistance Rising
Location: Toronto, ON

Re: Copyright Rules (UPDATED: Feb 16, 2016)

Post by MissingTexture »

Well aware of the character models, but it is exactly what ggctuk said. The U-wing and Tie Striker are roughly 6500 Polys and are pretty nice in detail, the u-wing is a lot nicer than the one I am using.
User avatar
Teancum
Jedi Admin
Jedi Admin
Posts: 11079
Joined: Wed Sep 07, 2005 11:42 pm
Projects :: No Mod project currently.
Games I'm Playing :: Destiny
xbox live or psn: No gamertag set
Location: Indiana

Re: Copyright Rules (UPDATED: Feb 16, 2016)

Post by Teancum »

The spirit of the rule is that if a sufficient community asset doesn't exist then to go to the games. So if the U-Wing is that much better, or if the community model doesn't suffice, then it's cleared.
thelegend
Sith
Sith
Posts: 1433
Joined: Thu Jan 23, 2014 6:01 am
Projects :: Star Wars - Battlefront III Legacy
Games I'm Playing :: Swbf GTA CoD LoL KH
xbox live or psn: El_Fabricio#
Location: Right behind you :)

Re: Copyright Rules (UPDATED: Feb 16, 2016)

Post by thelegend »

I do not want to ask when it comes to EA's Battlefront (2015) but I have to ask anyway. When it comes to sounds I am clearly sure we are not allowed to rip/extract audio files from this game. Not even for one simple fire sound. That's understandable. But what about recorded sounds (Let's say: minimal use of particular weapon sounds) from gameplay videos found on YT? Or recorded in-game? I remember it was allowed to create textures using screenshots from the game, wasn't it? So...wouldn't that apply to sounds to, at least?
User avatar
Teancum
Jedi Admin
Jedi Admin
Posts: 11079
Joined: Wed Sep 07, 2005 11:42 pm
Projects :: No Mod project currently.
Games I'm Playing :: Destiny
xbox live or psn: No gamertag set
Location: Indiana

Re: Copyright Rules (UPDATED: Feb 16, 2016)

Post by Teancum »

I'll have to say a very firm no. It's the same principle, and people have been really trying to push that EA envelope lately. I get that people have a desire to be as close to canon as possible, to be super HD, or to have super accurate sounds, but we've survived this long without all this extra stuff.
User avatar
giftheck
Droid Pilot Assassin
Droid Pilot Assassin
Posts: 2218
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 5:58 pm
Projects :: Star Wars Battlefront Legacy

Re: Copyright Rules (UPDATED: Feb 16, 2016)

Post by giftheck »

Most of the sounds can be recreated using older sound banks. I would say that sometimes EA sounds, while sounding pristine, aren't always 'accurate' anyway (I really don't like the E-11 firing sound - hence why I chose to use a different one mixed from EAW and the long-defunct Soundbank on the Star Wars site - and the A280 sound in the stock game is technically accurate already - the EA sound is just a 'bump' followed by the same sound used for laser bolt flyby in TESB). The only sound I've had trouble finding any sound in proximity to is the T21, but I'm fairly sure there must be some substitute out there (the sound is like a pitched-down version of the Droid Fighter firing sound)
User avatar
Anakin
Master of the Force
Master of the Force
Posts: 4817
Joined: Sat Sep 19, 2009 11:37 am
Projects :: RC Side Mod - Remastered - SWBF3 Legacy
Location: Mos Espa (germany)

Re: Copyright Rules (UPDATED: Feb 16, 2016)

Post by Anakin »

great to have a (fully) complete list. Can you maybe make the allowed things green and the not allowed red?? i think that would make it more readable.
User avatar
giftheck
Droid Pilot Assassin
Droid Pilot Assassin
Posts: 2218
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 5:58 pm
Projects :: Star Wars Battlefront Legacy

Re: Copyright Rules (UPDATED: Feb 16, 2016)

Post by giftheck »

Huh. I just read through that list. We were banned from using Pinball assets before. I didn't realise that it had Disney's EULA attached to it, which is neat, because it means I can use the AT-ACT and the DT-29 from there (looking at the DT-29, it would be very, very diffuclt for me to make that weapon from scratch because of the position the official still is in: the scope blocks parts of the gun).

I also didn't realise the LEGO Star Wars games all had that EULA either. Of course, if I were to use anything from there, I'd not use the LEGO stuff (what with LEGO itself being copyrighted to the LEGO company) but that means we can use things like environments and sounds.
User avatar
Lorul1
Rebel Colonel
Rebel Colonel
Posts: 562
Joined: Wed Apr 24, 2013 10:34 pm
Projects :: Assault on Theed
Games I'm Playing :: Battlegrounds
xbox live or psn: No gamertag set
Location: Your House

Re: Copyright Rules (UPDATED: Feb 16, 2016)

Post by Lorul1 »

If you see something in the list that is incorrect or infact has a provision to allow us to use it please correct me. It's been a long weekend of reading through EULA / DMCA /TOS... But atleast now we have a bit of a list of what is and is not legally allowed.
Battlefront 2 (2017) is not listed at all ...
So I'm guessing using sounds from Battlefront 2 (2017) for my assault on Theed map is a no go ???

EDIT :

Just read Teancum's post from Feb 26, 2017
... sorry for posting this ... at least you guys may now want to add battlefront 2 (2017) to the list.
I wanted voice overs for the clones :( oh well
User avatar
giftheck
Droid Pilot Assassin
Droid Pilot Assassin
Posts: 2218
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 5:58 pm
Projects :: Star Wars Battlefront Legacy

Re: Copyright Rules (UPDATED: Feb 16, 2016)

Post by giftheck »

Battlefront 2(017) is guaranteed to have EA's EULA, so that is banned, yes. On top of that, it's too new.
User avatar
Teancum
Jedi Admin
Jedi Admin
Posts: 11079
Joined: Wed Sep 07, 2005 11:42 pm
Projects :: No Mod project currently.
Games I'm Playing :: Destiny
xbox live or psn: No gamertag set
Location: Indiana

Re: Copyright Rules (UPDATED: Feb 16, 2016)

Post by Teancum »

I'm in the process of updating our copyright rules. I have gone through the EULAs we didn't have a clear picture of (such as the LEGO games) and found that their EULAs also have the updated User Generated Content clause. I've also added a number of older console-only games as logic dictates that had they been on PC/Steam they'd get the updated EULA as well. Old MMOs/online only games Star Wars Galaxies and Star Wars Uprising are cleared. Finally I added Star Wars Force Arena as it was directly published by Disney, not EA.

ALLOWED (Disney EULA, Offline MMOs, etc)
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars
Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Pinball FX2/Star Wars Pinball - all content variants
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II
Star Wars Rebellion
Star Wars Empire at War
Star Wars Republic Commando
Star Wars Jedi Knight Jedi Academy
Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds Saga
Star Wars Dark Forces
Star Wars Jedi Knight II Jedi Outcast
Star Wars X-Wing Alliance
Star Wars Shadows of the Empire
Star Wars Tie Fighter
Star Wars The Force Unleashed
Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2
Star Wars X-Wing vs Tie Fighter
Star Wars Rebel Assault I + II
Star Wars Jedi Knight Mysteries of the Sith
Star Wars Starfighter
Star Wars The Clone Wars Republic Heroes
Star Wars X-Wing
Star Wars Jedi Knight Dark Forces II
Star Wars Force Arena
Star Wars Rogue Squadron I, II and III
Star Wars The Clone Wars
Star Wars Jedi Starfighter
Star Wars Galaxies
Star Wars Uprising
Star Wars Battlefront III (Free Radical -- cancelled)
Star Wars Battlefront Renegade Squadron
Star Wars Battlefront Elite Squadron
Star Wars First Assault (Cancelled game)

FORBIDDEN (EA EULA, Currently online MMOs)
Star Wars Battlefront 2015 (EA)
Star Wars Battlefront II 2017 (EA)
Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes (EA)
Star Wars The Old Republic (Currently Online)

What does this mean for you?
Well, frankly it means you have an incredibly deep well to pull from. Given what you see on the allowed list there is absolutely no reason to ever use one of the forbidden games for content. If you can't find what you need made by the community (preferred) or pulled from one of the permitted games (less preferred) then it doesn't need to be in your mod/map.

We're loosening the chains a bit here given Disney's openness. That means you can take a more than we used to allow, but remember to always look for a community made asset first. If you can't find what you need, or if the community asset isn't up to snuff, move forward with your port. Porting maps, characters, etc -- that's fine, but don't remake the whole game. The exception here would be cancelled games. None of that ever came out, so paying tribute to those games by making maps or mods based on them is the highest compliment we can give.

Updated policy on non-Star Wars games
Basically going forward we're going to lock down our policy on any assets taken from non-Star Wars games. Don't take anything from anything outside Star Wars games and host it in your mod here, don't even talk about it here. As of January 11, 2018, any mods that were released under the old rules regarding this will still be allowed. Any future mods, including ones in progress now, will not be.
User avatar
giftheck
Droid Pilot Assassin
Droid Pilot Assassin
Posts: 2218
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 5:58 pm
Projects :: Star Wars Battlefront Legacy

Re: Copyright Rules (UPDATED: Feb 16, 2016)

Post by giftheck »

Thank you for updating us. I'm hoping to remove most if not all the small amount of EA assets (sound assets I've been working my tail off to find suitable alternatives for) from my SWBF1 mod on the next update so hopefully I can finally post about it here.

I had ported a few models we didn't have yet from Pinball FX (notably the AT-ACT which we don't yet have a community model for) but was hesitant to post them here.

(The Ultimate Star Wars Sound Effects collection is very, very useful for doing that as it contains practically every sound ever done pre-EA and there's a load in there that are more or less equivalent)
Post Reply